PDP calls on President Buhari to go all out to rescue ‘600 abducted Katsina students’

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to go all out to secure the release of  the about 600 students allegedly kidnapped by gunmen on Friday at the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina state.

The party stated this on Saturday at a news conference addressed by its national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan.

Ologbondiyan urged the president as the commander-in-chief, “who promised to lead from the front, to account for the abducted students, as the large-scale abduction happened a few hours after the President and his security machinery took over the state.”

He said: “Our party holds as perplexing that at a time the people of Katsina should have heaved a sigh of relief because of his presence, the abduction happened right under Mr. President’s nose; in his home state, where he had gone holidaying.

“This development has further exposed the failure of President Buhari to manage high level security intelligence that ought to accompany a presidential visit.

“The PDP notes as distressing that President Buhari, who refused to honour an invitation by the House of Representatives for a collective deliberation on security, could abandon his duty post for a holiday, leaving our national flanks open for terrorists, bandits, vandals, and insurgents.

“The time of the attack buttresses the fact that President Buhari, as the commander-in-chief, is totally incapable of securing our nation; the very reason there have been widespread calls by patriotic Nigerians that he should resign.

“This insolence of Mr. President towards issues of national security compelled our caucus in the House of Representatives to demand for his impeachment.

“Our party believes that if President Buhari had listened to wise counsel as proffered by the PDP and other patriotic Nigerians including the two chambers of the National Assembly to rejig the nation’s security architecture, our situation would not have deteriorated to this sorry state.

“Moreover, this particular abduction in the President’s home state, under his watch, raises further serious questions over this government’s capacity to fight insurgency.

“This is more worrisome as the state government had been known to have established contacts with, as well as pampering bandits, which Mr. President had not condemned.

“The PDP demands that President Buhari should immediately quit his needless holidaying in Daura and go in search of, and rescue the abducted students, particularly having earlier admitted that issue of security is his exclusive responsibility.

“Our party sympathizes with the people of Katsina state, particularly the parents of the kidnapped students, who have been subjected to harrowing experience occasioned by the incompetence of the Buhari administration.

“The PDP, working in concert with other patriotic Nigerians will not rest until President Buhari finds and returns each of these students.

“The PDP urges Nigerians to remain alert and prayerful as the nation wades through this nightmare under an insensitive, inept and uncoordinated administration.”